Brake-staff for railway-cars.



No. 844,465. PAT-EDITED FEB. 19, 1907.

' E. POSSON.

BRAKE STAFF FOR RAILWAY CARS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT.27.1906.

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PATENTED FEB. 19, 1907.

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E POSSON. BRAKE STAFF FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT 27 EDWARD POSSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BRAKE-STAFF FOR RAILWAY-CARS- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 19, 1907.

Application'filecl September 27. 1906- Serial No. 336,491-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD PossoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicage, in the county of Cook and State-of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Brake-Staffs forRailway- Cars, of which the following is a s ecitication.

My invention relates to bra e-staffs for railway-cars, and has for itsobject to provide a tilting brake-sta'if which may be operated in theusual vertical position or turned down to be operated in anapproximately horizon- In the accompanying drawings I have shown myinvention as applied to a flat steel freight-car. It is sometimesdesirable in cars of this type that the brake-staff, which, as is wellknown, is usually applied at the ends of the car in a vertical position,may be turned down to a position approximately horizontal and parallelwith the end of the car, especially when it is desired to load the carwith long beams projecting over. the ends thereof or when from thenature of the load it is not convenient to operate the brakes with thebrake-staff in its usual vertical position. I accordingly provide meansfor tilting the brake-stafl', as before mentioned, to approximately ahorizontal position, so that it will be out of the way of the load andso that the brake may be operated from the side of the car.

In the drawings, (1 represents the end sill of a fiat car of any desiredconstruction. Upon the end sill I mount a housing I), this housing'being pivoted near its lower ends to the lower end of a track-plate c,which is suitably secured to the end sill of the car, this track-platebeing provided with a segmental track portion a. The housin b consistsof side members, a top member and a bottom member 12 the top and bottommembers being provided with passage-ways for thebrake-stafi d, thisbrake-staff being provided with a flange or collar portion (1intermediate its length, which rests upon the bottom portion 5 of thehousing and prevents the brake-staffs from dropping through the housing,as will be readily understood. Integral with the top portion 6 of thehousing is a depending guide-track 6 The segmental track portion 0 isprovided with a guideflange c spaced from the end of the car to providea track 0 and the depending guidetrack b of the housing travels upon thetrack 0 between the guide-flange c and the end of the car. The housingI) is pivoted upon a pivot-bolt 6, this pivot-bolt passing through aboss 0 formed upon the lower end of the tracleplate, and the lower endof the housing is formed with a recess portionb, surrounding this boss,the whole forming a suitable pivot for the housing.

Upon the upper plate I) of the housing I mount a pawl g, which ispivoted so as to be thrown into and out of engagement with the teeth ofa ratchet-wheel f, secured to the brake-staff. The pawl is provided withan extension or foot piece g, by means of which it may be thrown out ofengagement with the teeth of the ratchet-wheel and both the pawl andfoot-piece are provided with vertical flanges g adaptrdto be struck bythe foot to throw the pawl into and out of engagement, as will bereadily understood.

In order to retain the housing and the brake-staff in vertical position,I'mount upon the housing a pawl 6 pivoted upon a bolt 12 between ears orlugs b integral with the side of the housing, This pawl is provided withoppositely-extending-lugs b", which are adapted to engage withprojections b of the ears I) and limit the downward movements of thepawl. This pawl engages with a projection 0 upon the side of theguide-flange 0 thus retaining the housing in vertical position. Upon theside of the segmental portion 0 of thetrack-plate and near the lower endthereof I mount pivotally, as-at 0 a pawl 0 which is provided at one endwith a weight 0 The opposite end of the pawl 0 projects through anopening c near the lower end of the track 0 and is normally in the pathof the depend- I ing guide-track b of the housing. When the housing isturned from vertical position, the guide-track thereof passes over thepawl a, forcing it out of the way of the guide-track. After theguide-track has passed over the pawl, however, the weight causes thepawl to return to normal position, (shown in Fig. 4,) thus preventingthe return of the housing brake-staff to vertical position.

In Fig. 1 the dotted line indicates the lowermost position of thebrake-staff, which I have described as approximately horizontal.

The operation of my device will be understood from the foregoingdescription.

I claim- 1. A railway-car provided with the usual end sills, atrack-plate provided with a segmental guide-track secured to the endsills, a housing provided with a guide-track pivotally secured at itslower end to the trackplate, and a brake-staff mounted in the housmg.

I 2. A railway-car having the usual end sills, a track-plate secured tothe end sills, said track-plate being provided with a segmental guide, ahousing having a guide-track pivotally secured to the track-plate, abrake-staff carried by the housing, a-retaining-lug mounted on thesegmental guide, and a pawl pivoted on the housing cooperatingtherewith, substantially as described- 3. A railway-car having the usualend sills, a track-plate having a segmental track provided with anopening near-its lower end, a pawl normally projecting through theopening, a housing pivotally secured to the trackplate, said housingbeing provided with a guide-track coo erating with the pawl in oneposition of the iousing.

EDWARD POSSON.

